In late March of 1997, the Heaven's Gate cult in California committed
mass suicide due in part to their belief that an alien spaceship was in
our solar system riding behind Comet Hale-Bopp. This alleged star
vessel supposedly contained intelligent beings superior to humanity
both technologically and spiritually. The cult believed these beings
were going to "save" selected members of the human race -- such as
themselves -- and bring them to a "higher level", wherever and whatever
that might be. In the end, though, the spaceship never existed and the
cult members only ended up decaying in a large suburban mansion.
While the cult's behavior is a rather extreme example, it showcases what
many in the general public think about intelligent life beyond Earth: That
"they" are superior to us in every way and have fleets of crewed starships
constantly coming here to prepare us for salvation from our primitive and
ultimately destructive ways. Of course many others think that aliens are
actually here for our chunk of the celestial real estate and to turn us into
food and/or slaves. When one looks at the realities of the Universe and
biological evolution, however, the truth is probably quite different.

Most folks know little about how vast our Cosmos is or even how it is set up.
We live on a rather small rock circling a small yellow star that is one of 400
billion in a huge collection of such luminous gas balls called the Milky Way
galaxy. Most of these stars average several light years apart, a distance
which would take our Pioneer and Voyager space probes tens of thousands
of years to reach even the nearest stars.

In other words, we live in a galaxy that is so large and so populated that it
is ludicrous to imagine that beings of other star systems would know about
us unless they were very nearby on a cosmic scale. And what would we
have to offer these beings who can cross interstellar distances, assuming
such advanced intelligences exist and would want to make the journey?
This is not to say that there are not ETI who explore other star systems,
but many scientists find it doubtful that they are here in the numbers that
the public reports every day, if there are even any ETI here at all!

Star travel is an expensive way to explore other systems, and you had better
be darn sure that there is something (or someone) of interest to find before
you send out your mission on a journey that could take years to centuries,
depending upon the target and disavowing any faster-than-light drives.

There is an easier way to explore and possibly communicate with beings
on other worlds: The use of microwave and optical telescopes as supported
by those who conduct the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
While
a starship might take a lot to build and then risk much in the long journey
from
one world to the next, a radio or light beam can carry lots of information
cheaply
and almost certainly survive the voyage intact.
That is what the SETI League and others who support and conduct such projects
think is the way we will first meet our extraterrestrial neighbors. Granted
this research
may not have the glamour and drama of an alien craft hovering over a major
city, but
it seems more likely at this point. It also does not require us to do more
than build
some rather inexpensive devices to listen and look for "them". Scanning the
whole sky
also increases the chances of finding ETI, rather than searching a few star
systems
at a time, as would be necessary with artificial star probes.

The SETI League's task at hand in part is to help the public understand how the
Universe is truly laid out and what would be required of any ETI to send
starships
rather than communicate through the ether. If the public keeps thinking "they"
are here, they will not support and fund efforts such as the SETI League's to
conduct the most likely way of ever knowing if we are not alone in the
Universe.

We must show them that not only are we not the physical center of the Cosmos
as once believed, but we are likely just one of many voices in the galactic
chorus. ETI may indeed "save" us, but we will do it by our efforts to find and
understand them. In this way, humanity will grow up on a celestial scale.